Word: June 2018

Investigations by journalists, academics, lawyers, political parties, official nonpartisan observers, and interested citizens have drawn attention to the clear-cut fact that voting fraud threatens democracy to this day in the United States.

Since the 2000 presidential election accusations of electoral manipulation in Florida the potential for election fraud overshadowing all aspects of 2018 elections, from voter registration fraud to voting machine security remains nations greatest determiner of its future.

Electoral manipulation diminishes many of the assumed benefits of democratic governance, including public accountability, transparency, and representation.

However, the concept of election fraud and electoral manipulation more generally remains remarkably understudied.

Policymakers and academics share an interest in election fraud, but several factors have made it difficult to formulate a coherent understanding of what election fraud is, much less how to detect and prevent it. There is still no widely accepted definition of election fraud because the applied understanding of fraud depends on the context: what is perceived as fraudulent manipulation of the electoral process differs over time.

Beyond identifying fraud, how to use the knowledge that it has occurred presents other challenges. For example, election observers must determine whether documented irregularities would have changed the outcome of an election. Neither academics nor policymakers have clearly defined how much fraud must take place in order to constitute a fraudulent election.

Given the substantive importance and widespread occurrence of election fraud, and the central role that elections play in democratic governance, one might assume that sophisticated studies of election fraud would have proliferated. However, work to date includes little systematic research on how election fraud can be detected and deterred despite the frequent claims and anecdotes about election fraud found in the media. Detailed case studies or even anecdotes can provide important signals about where to look for election fraud, as well as information about the types of fraud that can be perpetrated. Here is where Your Library (Librarian) can be very helpful in one's quest for the Truth.

Without a doubt, election fraud has occurred in the United States.

Social scientists have an important opportunity (and, some would argue, a responsibility) to contribute to the detection and deterrence of election fraud.
In the context of elections in the United States, the most outspoken commentators on the subject of election fraud are divided into two camps.

On the one hand there are individuals who argue that election fraud is rampant and that U.S. elections are completely corrupt. On the other hand there are individuals who dismiss all claims of election fraud as partisan and instead argue that election fraud is nonexistent in U.S. elections.

It has been viewed that these competing claims can be examined scientifically, relying primarily on tools from the social sciences.

By studying methods of fraud prevention and by examining the consequences of election fraud and efforts to prevent it, a good sense in hope may arise out of our nations ruins that this volume provides valuable information to election officials who are interested in increasing public confidence in elections.